Clinton: Iran becoming military dictatorship

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said today that Iran is becoming a military dictatorship, a new US accusation in the midst of rising tensions with Iran over its nuclear ambitions and crackdown on anti-government protesters.

Speaking to Arab students at Carnegie Mellon’s Doha campus in Qatar, Mrs Clinton said Iran’s Revolutionary Guard appears to have gained so much power that it is effectively supplanting the government.

“Iran is moving toward a military dictatorship,” she said. “That is our view.”

Last week the US Treasury Department announced that it was freezing the assets in US jurisdictions of a Revolutionary Guard general and four subsidiaries of a previously penalised construction company he runs because of their alleged involvement in producing and spreading weapons of mass destruction.

The Revolutionary Guard has long been a pillar of Iran’s regime as a force separate from the ordinary armed forces. The Guard now has a hand in every critical area, including missile development, oil resources, dam building, road construction, telecommunications and nuclear technology.

It has also absorbed the paramilitary Basij as a fully fledged part of its command structure – giving the militia greater funding and a stronger presence in Iran’s internal politics.

Asked if the US is planning a military attack on Iran, Mrs Clinton said “no”.

The US is focused on gaining international support for sanctions “that will be particularly aimed at those enterprises controlled by the Revolutionary Guard, which we believe is in effect supplanting the government of Iran”, she said.

The Obama administration is trying to “send a message to Iran – a very clear message” that the US is still open to engagement “but that we will not stand idly by while you pursue a nuclear programme that can be used to threaten your neighbours and even beyond,” Mrs Clinton said.

Later, as she boarded her plane for the next stop on her Middle East trip, Mrs Clinton told reporters: “The civilian leadership is either preoccupied with its internal political situation or is ceding ground to the Revolutionary Guard.”

In her Doha appearance, Mrs Clinton also said she foresees a possible breakthrough soon in stalled peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

“I’m hopeful that this year will see the commencement of serious negotiations that will cover every issue that is outstanding,” she said, adding that “everyone is anticipating” progress after more than a year of impasse between the negotiating parties.

The peace talks broke down in late 2008 with Israel’s incursion into Gaza, which had launched rocket attacks on Israeli targets.

Mrs Clinton spoke in an interview with the Al-Jazeera TV network before a live audience of mostly Arab students at the Carnegie Mellon campus.

In remarks in the Qatari capital on Sunday, Mrs Clinton said she and the president are disappointed that the administration’s efforts to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks had failed thus far.

A Carnegie Mellon audience member who identified himself as an Iranian expatriate asked Mrs Clinton if the US would be present in Iraq if Iraq had no oil resources. She said the US wants a normal relationship with the Iraqi government, regardless of its natural resources.

“When we leave Iraq, as has been agreed to, with our military – and we’re on schedule to do that – we will hopefully have a relationship with Iraq as we have with any other country,” she said. On Sunday she said the number of US troops in Iraq had fallen this month below 100,000 and that the US is on track to have all combat troops out of the country by the end of summer.

Reflecting the extent of concern in the Persian Gulf region about a US confrontation with Iran, another member of the audience asked Mrs Clinton about the outlook for improving relations with Tehran. Mrs Clinton reiterated the Obama administration’s view that Iran has violated its international obligation to use nuclear technology only for peaceful purposes. And she regretted that Iran has not accepted US offers of nuclear negotiations.

“Unfortunately, there has not been the kind of response that we had hope for from the Iranian leadership,” she said.

Mrs Clinton makes a point of raising the topic of women and girls’ rights whenever she travels abroad. In a speech to a forum on US-Muslim relations, she stressed it in the context of US support for nations seeking to build democratic institutions.

“As nations strive to build and strengthen governments that reflect the will of their people, grounded in their own traditions, they can count on the US to be their partner,” she said. “But the will of the people means the will of all the people, men and women. Women’s rights are an issue of singular importance to me personally and as secretary of state.”

She also cited the issue of violence against women, without mentioning any specific country.

“Even today, in 2010, women are still targets of violence,” she said. “And all too often, religion might be used to justify it. But there is never a justification for violence against women. It is not cultural. It is criminal. And it is up to religious leaders to take a stand for women, to call for an end to honour killings, child marriages, domestic and gender-based violence.”

Later on Monday, Mrs Clinton was flying to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for a meeting with King Abdullah and a session with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal.